The Capitals
by OdairBear
Summary: When nationally ranked Figure Skater Tris Prior accidentally ends up on the Washington Capitals cheer team. She surprisingly finds herself enjoying it. Especially the attention she's attracted from a certain hockey player. Will she learn to branch out of her comfort zone and find love in an unexpected place?
1. Chapter 1

Stretching deep into a split I try stretching my back in a way that would be commonly described as 'half-assed.'

I lace up my skates. They're fairly new so I've had to go through the strenuous process of breaking them in, though the fact I've worn the boots while doing random chores around the house has helped soften the blow. The Ice Fly model by Edea Skates is apparently 'the best pair of skates on the market at the moment.' At first I was a little hesitant but after finding out how much lighter the boot is that my previous pair of skates, my adversity towards new skates was basically forgotten. I switch my soft blade covers for the hard ones that protect the metal against any debris that could be lurking on the floor. I begin walking out of the locker room and out onto the ice. However I make sure to remove my blade guards before stepping onto the ice because last time I forgot to do that I fell flat on my butt in front of a midget Hockey team congregated in the bleachers.

Honestly the whole experience was mortifying. It's hard enough 'gaining' their respect as it is, being a figure skater and all. Technically this is their rink though, if the hockey banners hanging proudly above the two rinks didn't get the message across, the fact that Kettler Center Iceplex is home of the NHL's Washington Capitals should be hint enough.

Kettler isn't my 'home' rink, but it's conveniently located so more often than not I end up practicing here, plus since there's two rinks, there's more freestyle sessions than the likes of some other area rinks.

When I get out onto the ice I head to the Music booth and connect my phone to the auxillary cord. I pull up Spotify and put on my warm up playlist. It's my private ice time I have booked so no one else is allowed to be on the ice without my approval. That's why my domination of the rinks stereo system isn't an issue.

7/11 by Beyonce is the first song in the playlist and it really pumps me up for the rest of my skate. I start out by doing different footwork patterns. I start with brackets then end with twizzles. I go through all of my spiral sequences such as heel stretches and Biellmann's. Which I admit is fairly difficult considering I forgot to fully stretch out my back before I got on the ice.

When I'm finished with everything I move onto jumping. I start out by doing three waltz jumps and running through all of my singles before moving onto doubles. Then I execute the triple jumps that I've been landing consistently. I then proceed to work on combination jumps, (which is when you do a jump and proceed to do more in the same sequence.)

I do simple combinations to warm up until I finally feel ready to tackle the most difficult one I've been working on which is a triple lutz-double toe-double toe.

I land the first one without error but as I continue to run through it more I find myself messing up more often on the last double toe so I decide to work on triple flip-double toe combination just for good measure. Then I move onto spins.

I warm up by doing scratch spins both forward and back. Then I ease into camel spins where I'm aiming for at least 10 revolutions. Then I do the same with Laybacks, sits, I-Spins, Y-spins, Death drops, and Bielmann's. After running through all of those I move on to different variations of all of them, Still aiming for the 10 revolutions. Even though I love practically everything about skating, I'm more partial towards spins, they're something I've never had too much difficulty with when learning new positions and variations so I enjoy them a little more than other elements.

The stringent International Judging System expects basic spin positions to be held for a minimum of eight revolutions so I try to surpass that every time I spin. When I'm satisfied with my work I proceed to work on my combination spins and flying entry spins, then I return back to jumping for the last part of my warm up.

When I'm finished jumping I skate over to the music player and put in my long program music, which is a mash up of a few pieces from the Girl Interrupted Film Score by Mychael Danna. I Run through the entire program cleanly, then I run through my short program which is Celine Dion's rendition of Fever.

When I'm done I start doing improvisation to random songs on my playlist. The intent basically being to work on fluidity and musicality. Hands to Myself by Selena Gomez comes on and I kind of just start jamming out on the ice. I do random dance moves with my arms. Then I notice someone come in so I purposefully get into set up to do a double axel in case it's my coach. I land it and when I turn around to check who it is I see Adam Oates, the coach of the capitals. I skate over to him and smile, "Hey Adam."

"Hey Tris, how are you doing?" He asks and I shrug. "So we're down a Red Rocker tonight and I was wondering if you could substitute for Emily, she twisted her ankle going down steps or something so we need a new cheerleader for the next couple of games, are you in?"

"I'd love to do it Adam, but I don't think Coach Sevina would allow me to, she says it's degrading," I explain putting air quotes around 'degrading.' I roll my eyes slightly and he laughs. "Come on Tris, just for tonight's game then. I'm willing to pay you," he says raising an eyebrow.

"How much?" I question. "Eight-fifty per game," he says and I smirk in response.

"Deal," I say and we shake on it. "See you at five tonight, we meet here than bus over to the Verizon center," he says and I check the clock on the wall it's seven, which means my practice time is up. I head to the locker room and run into Christina and Marlene, two of the red rockers.

"Hey Tris," Christina says with an overly friendly smile. "Hey guys," I say in response.

"Apparently I'm cheering with you tonight?" I say and they raise their eyebrows. "But you don't even know the routines! Oh Tris you can't take your skates off, we have to teach you so much," Marlene says.

I internally groan then smile at them. "Okay!" I say in a tone of false excitement. I pull back on my Washington Figure Skating Club jacket and we all head out into the rink. They teach me the choreography for all three of their routines. They're all basically just dancing on ice which is easy enough.

We run through the first two songs which in summary are songs about how great the Capitals are, which I do reluctantly considering I was born and raised a Blackhawks fan. The last routine however is my favorite. "So we have a whole different outfit for this routine it's basically capital colors but it's a cowgirl outfit but since you're the same size as Emily this really shouldn't be a problem."

They put in a Luke Bryan song called Country Girl. They teach me the dance and it's really sexual but I have a blast with it anyways. Then at the end you're able to do whatever you want so I go off and do my Triple Salchow-Double Loop-Double Toe combo. Marlene and Christina look at me in awe and start clapping excitedly. "You're amazing Tris!" Christina gushes and I smile sheepishly considering I'm not good at accepting compliments.

"Thanks," I reply semi-awkwardly.

We run through each dance two more times and by the time it's over my feel are sore and my stomach is grumbling. I get off of the ice and put my blade guards back on. I head over to the vending machines and buy a peanut butter chocolate chip Clif bar out of the machine. When I turn around run into a guy, "Well if it isn't the little figure skater," Peter, one of the Capitals players, teases. I roll my eyes and walk away. "Get back here Stiff!" He yells.

I give him the finger and don't even bother turning around. "Fuck off," I yell. I hear his footsteps behind me and he grabs my ass. "Get the fuck away from me!" I yell simultaneously while slapping him across the face.

"Come on let's have some fun," He says while caressing my side. I walk away but he grabs me and presses me against the wall. "Can you not Peter, I'm really not in the mood to deal with your bullshit," I say really loudly in hopes that someone will hear me. Luckily someone does, just as Peter's hand is about to move up my chest. A man appears behind him and pulls him away from me. He looks him sternly in the eye. "Peter, she said she's not in the mood to deal with you. Neither am I. leave," He says in a voice so menacing it almost scares me despite the fact that he's defending me.

"God why do you have to be such a buzz kill Four?" He says before spitting onto the ground next to him. Four walks over to me after Peter is gone. "Thank you," I say to him. "I'm Tris, and you are?" I say and he just laughs.

"Really you don't know who I am? Right wing for the capitals? Number four? Does that ring a bell?" He says with an amused smile on his face. "Sorry I don't really pay attention to hockey much. Despite the fact that this rink revolves around it," I say with a smile.

"I'm actually going to be substituting for Emily tonight though so I guess I'll be cheering you on," I say awkwardly and he picks up on this. "You don't seem too thrilled about it," He comments.

I laugh and explain, "I'm from Chicago."

"Blackhawks fan?" he asks raising an eyebrow and I nod.

"Please don't tell anyone here though, I'd never hear the end of it." I plead.

Four laughs, "It's fine."

Then he leans in really close, close enough that I can feel his breath on my ear causing a shiver to go through me. "To be honest I was born and raised a hawks fan too. I'm from Winnetka, so basically Chicago. Now I'm going to ask the same of you, please don't tell anyone here seeing as I'd never hear the end of it."

I nod profusely and he smiles. "Well it was nice meeting you Tris, I kind of have a game to prepare for tonight though so I'll see you around," he says as he heads back to the other rink. "See you soon," I yell.

Well wasn't that a pleasant encounter.


	2. Chapter 2

I arrive at Kettler an hour early considering I had not much else to do besides continuing to work out, which is what I've been doing all day. When I arrive there are a bunch of the red rockers out on the ice working on basic jumps and spins. I guess I should do the same.

I go to my locker and pull my Edea skates out of it. I lace up my skates and head out to the ice. I warm up as I normally do but when It comes time to jump I don't nearly do half of what I'm capable of because I don't want to act like I'm trying to show anyone up. I do all of my doubles and everyone starts clearing the ice so I manage to squeeze in a triple Salchow. I then follow everyone off of the ice and I notice they're all in uniform. Christina comes up to me with one in her hand. "Adam told me to give you these. There's the Country girl outfit then our normal uniform. The normal uniform is what we're going to use first so you don't really need to worry about the country girl outfit until halftime."

"Thanks," I tell her. "It's no problem we're excited to have you here, Emily's a little bit of a bitch anyways," She says unabashedly causing me to laugh.

"Once we get out uniforms on we're going to go over the dances, so you might want to hurry up since almost everyone's got theirs on," Christina says and smiles at me reassuringly.

I get dressed quickly, I eye the outfit in the mirror and it's almost slutty in comparison to the typically revealing outfits I wear as a figure skater anyways. However once I get on the ice I feel more comfortable. We begin to run through the dances and once we get to country girl I notice that the whole capitals team is in here watching us. That means Peter's here, but on the other hand that means that Four is here.

I notice more than half of the girls get off of the ice and I look at Marlene and Christina, "Why'd everyone leave?" I ask. "Oh this dance is only for people who have strong freestyle skills and it's kind of bad considering barely any of us do but Shauna, Lauren, and Molly have a few of their doubles so we decided to incorporate that into a dance. Then Marlene and I are the only ones besides them who have all of their singles so it was kind of thrown together that way."

"Oh," I mutter and then the music comes on. When the song starts I decide that I'm going to kill this routine. We do the whole dance then once the whole showcase thing begins I get excited. I do a death drop spin that I pull up into an I-Spin which is basically a bow-and-arrow. I spin for 8 revolutions in each position then I exit the spin. There's still about thirty seconds of music left so I do one of my combinations. A Triple flip-triple toe-double loop. I land it perfectly and I smile to myself. For the remaining fifteen seconds I do a Bielmann spiral which most people refer to as a scorpion, when the music is almost over we all return to a circle in the middle of the rink and do the first eight count of the dance again then we finish. To my surprise there's actually applause from the hockey team although it possibly could just be because of our outfits.

We all exit the ice and I take of my skates putting them in my lululemon bag. We're all escorted to the charter busses and since there's only 16 of us. And twenty of them we all share a bus. Before we board the bus I spot Four and his eyes were already on me. I smile at him and he returns the smile. I want to sit with him, but he probably has a prior commitment with a teammate or something. After everyone's done boarding the only seat that's empty is the one next to mine. Until Adam comes on the bus, anyways. "Prior, I'm giving you a raise. You put on quite the show at practice and I'm a firm believer in Karma so I'm going to double your pay," He says. I try not to question it but I can't resist, "Wait why?"

"Just because what goes around comes around, since I'm doing something nice for you then that means that something good will happen to me," He says and I smile. I don't quite think that's how it works, Is what I want to say, but I don't feel like killing his vibe so I decide to let him be happy. Maybe he just really wants to win tonight? Once the engine of the bus has started of course someone else comes on, Adams wife. Adam took the last seat so of course now I feel compelled to move. I stand up and let her sit down. "You didn't have to do that for me but thank you," she says.

I get up and realize that there is one more empty seat, but it's between Peter and Drew all the way in the back. I feel a panic attack coming on. I scan the seats for Four and once I find him. "Hey, um… I had to give up my seat for Adam's wife and now the only seat that's available is next to Peter and I really don't want to sit there so can I sit on your lap or something? Oh my god I'm sorry that sounded so bad ugh now you must think I'm coming on too strong… I'm sorr-" He cuts me off.

"Edward, can you go sit back next to Peter?" Four asks the guy next to him and he complies. "Thank you, I'm sorry for talking so much, sometimes I ramble to get out of uncomfortable situations," I say.

"Don't worry it was kind of cute," He says and my heart starts racing. He thinks I'm cute? Is my first thought which is followed by, He thinks I'm cute. Holy Shit. I smile at him

We drive to the Verizon center. Four and I talk for the entire bus ride. They're playing the New York Rangers today who've been playing really well this year then again so have the Capitals so it'll probably be an evenly matched game.

"Oh by the way is there any way I could get your number?" Four asks me. I swear my mouth opens a little in shock but I recover and nod, "yeah sure." He hands me his phone and I put my info in then I text my number from his phone so I'll have his number too. "I'd ask you to go out after the game but unfortunately I have to hang out with these assholes for the rest of the night." He says in a joking manner referencing to his team mates. Its nice that it seems like more of an obligation related to their team camaraderie than an annoyance to him.

The bus arrives and we all get out of the bus. Four and I head our separate ways and I smile to myself a little and Christina nearly gives me a heart attack by jumping on my back.


	3. Chapter 3

After having my face covered in make up thanks to Christina. We all head out in a group. As a team we start typical pre-game events with the audience like giving out prizes through a t-shirt canon. It's actually pretty fun and I end up hanging out with Marlene and Christina the whole time.

We do the opening dance right before the game starts and we get tons of applause from the audience.

We sit on the sidelines and pose for pictures with some fans. I end up watching Four the entire fire half of the game, he's amazing. He scored four goals all by himself in the first half of the game. Zeke and unfortunately Peter also contribute to the score making the game 6-2.

Its half time now and we're going to do the country girl number. I get out on the ice and skate around with the other girls to get warmed up like we're supposed to do. I take my position in the center and so does everyone else. Eventually the music starts playing and I smile. We start doing the dance and I nail every move despite only having learned the dance the other day.

When the freestyle skating part comes we take turns going two at a time for jumps. I do a triple salchow and leave it at that so I don't show up the other girls too much. I do a spiral as I head back to the center of the ice. Everyone heads to an area of the ice to spin and the only decent spot that's left is the center so I do crossovers into a layback spin I hit the attitude position perfectly so I pull it up into a hair cutter which I proceed to pull up into a biellmann spin. I hold each position for six revolutions then I exit the spin the return to our original positions in which we finish the dance. There's a thunderous applause so we exit the ice.

When the game is over the Capitals won 7-3 so we do the other dance in our normal uniforms which is only done when the capitals win.

When the game is over Adam walks over to me, "Tris, we're having a victory celebration back at my house it's just the team and I but I was wondering if you'd like to come. I normally don't invite any of the red rockers but since you guys did such an exceptional job tonight I figured there's no harm in inviting you guys. Pass it along if you want to, -don't tell any of the girls this but some of them are really annoying so I'm leaving it up to your discretion to invite who you want. Anyways so we're taking the bus back to kettler then all the boys normally drive over to my house so yeah it's up to you whether you want to bring anyone or not. I'll text you my address," He says and I nod, "I'll probably just bring two or three girls."

"Perfect," he says. "Thanks for the invite and congrats on the win tonight," I say in response but he's already gone so he doesn't hear it.

My phone buzzes and it's his address 2700 Amity Place. We all catch the bus back over and luckily this time I get on the bus and Christina invites me to sit with her. The bus actually smells decent considering the team must have taken showers and changed out of their hockey gear, they must have loaded all of it in the bottom of the bus.

We arrive at Kettler and Adam's assistant has to wake almost all of the players up. I can't even imagine how exhausted they all are.

When I get back to kettler I head straight to the locker rooms, put my skates away, and change into my normal clothes. I tell Marlene, Christina, and Shauna about the party. I give them the address and we all drive there after we all get dressed.

When I arrive at Adams house it's just as huge as one would expect it to be. Made out of stone with marble stairs leading up to the front door. His driveways incredibly long but people still park in the grass. There are 15 cars here and that doesn't include the ones parked in his enormous garage. I head up to the front door and knock. One of the players whom I don't recognize it answers. "ADAM THERE'S A GIRL HERE!" He yells causing me to wince.

"It's probably Tris, just let her in," He says and I enter. "So did you invite anyone?" Adam asks.

"Yeah I invited Christina, Marlene, and Shauna," I say and he nods. "Good choices," He says with a chuckle.

He guides me towards a living room where a bunch of guys are hanging out. "Some people chill down here but most of them are up in the game room," He says and I smile. "Thanks for inviting me," I say.

"No problem, I love having you around you're like the little sister I never had," He says and I smile while punching his arm. "Definitely my little sister," He says and we go our separate ways. I head upstairs into the game room which isn't hard to find considering all of the noise coming from it.

When I walk in I see Zeke and Four playing pool.

Four pockets the 8-ball and the group erupts in cheers Zeke throws his cue on the ground. "Fuck you Four!" He yells jokingly and I laugh. "When?" Four says jokingly.

Suddenly he notices me. I wonder if he'll say hi or greet me or something really. "Tris!" He yells. I bite my lip as everyone diverts their attention to me. "Don't just stand there, get over here," he says. I walk over towards him and smile.

"Hi," I say awkwardly and he just smiles. "How are you?"

"That was quite a game you all played," I say talking to the group. "You know I only played that way because I knew I had you cheering me on," he says quietly leaning into my ear and a blush immediately spreads to my face.

Four plays another round of pool but this time it's with Zeke's younger brother Uriah who is also on the team. Four still emerges victorious but he decides to quit playing. Which causes the guy who he was supposed to play with to start shouting some typical guy banter at him, but Four just disregards it. He guides me downstairs and into the basement. Leading me to a lounge area with a bar and everything but no one is down here for some reason. "Adam tells us to stay out of here but I'm practically his favorite person ever so he never gives me shit for it," Four explains. "What kind of liquor do you like?" He asks me. I think I've never really had liquor. "I'm not sure I've always been more of a wine and beer drinker," I say.

"Cute," he mutters. "I assume you like champagne then?" he says.

I affirm his assumption, "I love it." Four laughs, "Well everyone's already gone through all ten bottles of Moët so we only have the expensive stuff left."

"Cristal or Ace Of Spades?" He asks me. "Your pick," I say casually.

"Cristal it is then," He pops open the bottle and the cork hits the ceiling. The foam starts over flowing the top of the bottle and he struggles to make it stop. I let out a slight laugh and he smiles brightly at me. He pours the drink into beer glasses till they're about half full.

He hands me one and I smile. He holds his glass up to mine and I clink it. "Congratulations on your victory," I say with a smile. We sit down and it's a comfortable silence but I wish he'd break it. "This is going to sound stupid but I haven't been able to get you out of my head since I met you."

"That's not weird..." I say in response biting my lower lip a bit "to be honest I've felt the same way," I clarify. We drink and talk for a while and once we finish the whole bottle we're talking about stupid things and laughing uncontrollably.

"So let's say hypothetically that if I wanted to kiss you, would you let me?" He asks and I giggle. "Well, that depends on if the moment is right," I say teasingly despite knowing his intent to do it at the moment. "Then if the moment was right would you let me kiss you?"

"Well that depends whether I'm wearing lipstick or not because I wouldn't want to smudge it all over your face," I say.

"Well you aren't wearing any lipstick right now…" He says. "Is the moment right?" I ask teasingly.

"I don't know let me do something real quick then you can tell me," He says.

He kisses me, firm yet somewhat tentative. He pulls away, "Is the moment right?"

I nod profusely. "Uh-huh," is all I can manage at the moment. I place my hands on the back on his neck just so I have something to grab onto, we both pull away for a quick breath then we resume kissing.

After a few more minutes of the same dance we pull apart and I just take another sip of bubbly out of the oddly chosen beer glass. He looks at me with a somewhat amused expression.

"So Tris, when can I see you next?" He asks.

"Five A.M. tomorrow at Kettler," I tease.

"That's where you want to go for our first date?" he teases and my mouth is agape.

"You didn't ask me on a date, you just asked when the next time you could see me was," I say giving him a small smile unable to contain myself with the idea he might actually be interested in me.

"I have ice time booked tomorrow morning, but I'm going to be at the rink all day for the most part. I believe I have a session with my choreographer, and a lesson with my coach, though I'm teaching a snowplow sam class at noon in the other rink. I might be able to squeeze you in tomorrow night if that works? If you're serious about a date?" I tease.

"Believe it or not, I'm a very serious person. Do you want to go out to eat or something?" he suggests.

"Sure, is there any place you had in mind?"

"Zeke was telling me theres this place in Georgetown, it's called The Rye Bar, it's supposedly awesome though Zeke has a tendency for speaking in hyperbole."

"That sounds great actually, if you'd like. You can park at my place and we can Uber over to Georgetown, I honestly hate dealing with the parking situation over there..."

He smiles a bit, "My place is actually in Georgetown, if you want I could just come pick you up? I have a garage so I'm free of the burden known as Georgetown parking."

"Sounds like a date," I say through my smiling.


End file.
